


Proceed with Caution (the good dog remix)

by Red



Category: X-Men: First Class (2011) - Fandom
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Still Have Powers, Canon Disabled Character, Gen, M/M, Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Remix, Ridiculous, Service Dogs, dog POV
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-10
Updated: 2014-05-10
Packaged: 2018-01-24 05:26:00
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,016
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1593194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Red/pseuds/Red
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Taking your person for a walk is always an adventure, particularly when you wind up finding yourself a new human along the way.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Proceed with Caution (the good dog remix)

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Proceed With Caution](https://archiveofourown.org/works/1083784) by [Unforgotten](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unforgotten/pseuds/Unforgotten). 
  * In response to a prompt by [Unforgotten](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Unforgotten/pseuds/Unforgotten) in the [remixmadness2014](https://archiveofourown.org/collections/remixmadness2014) collection. 



> This one pretty much makes sense only if you've read [the original](http://archiveofourown.org/works/1083784), I'm afraid, but who doesn't like a story from the dog's perspective?

Lady’s a good dog. 

At least, that’s what she’s heard. She tries, anyway. 

She doesn’t know that she was always a good dog. The people who she lived with before, they didn’t keep her, and neither did the place-with-all-the-dogs before that, or the family before that. It’s been a rather confusing life, all told. But she’s sure she’s got it right, now. 

Because it's not difficult, being her person’s dog. 

He’s not like the family before, who made it confusing. She never could figure it out. When it was work-time or when it was play-time or when it was time to eat, it was all muddled up in that home. But her person now? He’s _incredibly_ good at being a person. 

He has an awake-time that is the same every day. He is the best at waiting until sitting happens before her metal dish is filled up. He doesn’t always leave the work-vest on when it’s work-time, but he’s not confusing about that at all. He snaps just so, and she knows it’s time for her job, not off duty until he does it again. The last family wanted her to say hello to everyone and it was constantly petting-time regardless if she was working or not, and she’s not the best dog at multitasking. 

Whenever she thinks about it, actually--which isn’t often, since there’s much better things to do in a day than _think_ \--any dog could do this. Her person may wake up every night and have her to look for strangers a few times before needing his face cleaned. Her person might need to have her sit by him for a very long time in a busy place full of smells, until she knows he is breathing normal. Her person might even make her sniff a place ten times before he actually says good dog and sits down. But really, absolutely anyone could do that, and he buys the nicest floppy toys and plays tug very well besides, so it’s not like the job doesn’t have perks. 

So she isn’t all that impressed when she meets the _new_ person. 

Her person is exploring the big yard in that inefficient manner people have when they find him. From her distance, he smells not very interesting. Just like person, so he must not belong to any dogs or cats. He talks to her person. Often, that’ll just make her person want to walk some more, but instead he decides to sit. Still, she does not pay the new person mind at all, and when he finally leaves and Erik lets her finish up her business, that’s the most interesting part of the day. 

It is a _little_ more interesting the next they meet, but not much. Her person walks to the big yard, and she follows same as always, until they run into the man in exactly the same spot. It’s almost like her person was looking, but who knows with humans. She flops down at the feet of her person, tucking her head on her paws while she waits. The new guy talks to _her_ this time, and that always makes it so she gets to finish walking her person. 

But--and this is what makes this visit interesting--her person stays. He doesn’t tell her she’s off the job, so she doesn’t have to go over and say hello or anything, but it’s still odd. Later that day, though, her person drops some cheese when he’s in the kitchen and doesn’t look to see what happens to it, so she sort of forgets about it. 

The next time they find him is pretty much routine, and the time after that is, too. Mostly, anyway. The new person _did_ smell like people do when they’re hurt, that time; but if he’s not her person, he’s not her business. It’s really only the time after _that_ when things become strange. 

She had noticed her person was always getting more relaxed around the new person. That’s not a very common thing. Her person usually doesn’t like new people, not at all. Usually he only sees the same few: the three small people, the one lady, the other lady, the two older people. All those people (except the one) smell like they’re varying degrees of related to her person. She’s used to dismissing anyone not obviously in the pack, but she’s starting to wonder about this new human. 

And, also on this visit, the new person gave her person a thing. People do give each other things all the time, and most of the time--like now--it isn’t even food. All the same, when she starts walking her person again, she makes sure to get her nose close enough to give his pocket a sniff. 

It just smells like Boring Dogless Person, of course. But the smell is mixed with her person’s, now, and that makes it a little interesting. Her person even agrees, he sits on a bench and takes it out and looks at it and everything, so he must like the way the new person smells. He also takes out the Cube That Makes Noises (she doesn’t know why he’s so attached, but sometimes he forgets it and they have to go back and she has to smell the whole room again for him, just so he can have it), and they sit and let the cube make noises. Her person accepts a second walk after a while, but he’s different. 

She wasn’t sure how. He doesn’t smell scared or hurt or sick. She decides to keep close, just in case, but mostly he seems--maybe excited? One time, when she first got this job, he was very excited to go a new place. He had a shiny new set leg sleeves that she couldn’t lean on and new feet covers and everything, and he was happy-but-nervous. They still go to that place all the time. Maybe it’s like that, she thinks. Maybe he’s going to find a new place to go. 

But they find new guy _again_ , and she has to take them both on a walk, so she dismisses that idea. Obviously her person just wants more walks, she’s wrong about the new place. Both humans smell a little strange. Lady decides to keep close tabs on them, even if they’re going the wrong direction, and even if they’re walking right by Place With Too Many Brushes. She _must_ be doing a good job because they do _not_ stop, and she’s musing on how good she is when they make another turn and go into a place. 

There are doors and another door and one of those big boxes you ride in, and then one more door. She’s so incredibly proud of herself for figuring out her person--he just found them a new place, and now they’ll get to _go_ here--that she almost misses the snap. 

Wow, she thinks. That other place he found, only sometimes she goes off-duty. Wow. She runs around the place smelling everything and making sure it’s all okay, anyway, because you really ought to even if it’s not your job. 

Clearly, the place belongs to new person, it all smells like him. There are Soft Laying Platforms and Things You Can Go Under and a Room Full of Food, just like all houses. The Bin Full of Good Smells is even right there in the open, not hiding under the sink like how her person keeps his. This place is good, she thinks. Safe and quiet. It could probably only be improved by smelling more like her. She goes to give her human a few licks on the hand for the a wise choice in new place, but he only pets her for a second before he goes back to petting the new guy. 

There’s no explaining people, not even the rational ones. 

After that, the day takes a quick downturn. The people go into a room and don’t let her come with, not even when she asks. She sniffs, puts her paw under the door, whines, all the usual ways you open a door. But they appear to mean it. Affronted, she makes another circuit of the rest of the place. She rolls all over the rugs and takes a snack out of the Bin of Good Smells while there’s no one around to make a big stink out of it, but after a while she gives up and lays by the door again. 

She huffs. Somewhere, she messed up. 

Somehow, she was not a good dog. She’s sure that’s the problem. Otherwise, she’d be in there. Her person always lets her go everywhere, so obviously, there’s something she did wrong. She scratches her ear, considering. 

And she keeps scratching her ear, even after she forgets what it was she was considering. She gets her back claws in good and deep, really going for the itch. Her foot slips after a bit, and she has to start chewing on it, which reminds her again of her predicament. Her human always says _no_ and pushes at her foot if she chews for long. But it’s incredibly soothing to gnaw on something, and your feet are just there, and he’s not here to stop her, and it’s almost certainly because she’s a horrid dog. She gnaws and gnaws and she’s getting really in the zone with it when she hears a lot of racket from behind the door. 

Letting her foot go, she sits up, ears perked forward. The people seem to be quiet, now, but she can hear her human moving around after a moment. She stands up, hopeful that the door will wind up open. 

Sure enough, it does. Wagging her tail, she gives her person a quick hello, overjoyed that he forgave her for the horrible thing she did that got her locked out. She wants to smell absolutely everything in this room, _especially_ the little Bin of Good Smells because even from this distance you can tell that’s got something _fantastic_ in it, but she waits. A good dog waits, she tells herself. Now that she’s in here, she’s not getting kicked out again. 

When she got this person, he came pre-trained to let dogs up on the resting platform. She always lets him pat the platform, first, and just because they’re in a strange place there’s no reason to mess with routine. And when he does so, she gives the platform a quick whiff--no surprise, it smells like her person and the new person all at once--before heading over to inspect the new guy. 

Careful not to step on him--her person usually isn’t too happy about that, so she imagines new guy’s the same--and gets in close to push her nose in his face. 

He smells _interesting_. Warm and relaxed, a lot more like people than people usually do (constant baths, that’s the human way), and he also smells like her person. When he pets her, he isn’t terribly good at it, but she doesn’t care. She wags her tail again, letting him pat her however he likes, til he gets a bit stupid and she has to back off. At least _her_ person’s right there for a decent ear scratch and a bit of fetch. 

They all lay around together for a bit, so Lady winds up dozing off. When she wakes up to lick her paws, she starts wondering if she’ll be fed sometime this year. What if she starves to death? The humans are still talking, and it’s very late, and she’s so hungry, and she’s almost sure of her forthcoming demise when her person remembers it’s time to go. 

On the way out, she makes sure to roll her back one more time on the rug. Her person makes few noises including her name, but she’s already done. 

She noses his hand. It’s an easy job working for him, and now that he’s finally found a himself more pack and territory, she’s not about to let any other dogs get ideas. 


End file.
